Within-person bidirectional associations between maternal cortisol reactivity and harsh parenting across infancy and toddlerhood.

To understand transactional associations between mothers' biological stress responsivity and parenting behaviors, we examined bidirectional effects between maternal cortisol reactivity to observing their children during distress-eliciting paradigms and harsh parenting across infancy and toddlerhood using longitudinal data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292, 41.5% African American). Children completed a series of distress-eliciting laboratory paradigms when they were 7, 15, and 24 months old, and mothers observed their children during the paradigms. Maternal cortisol reactivity was computed as a residualized change score from baseline to 20 min postparadigm, controlling for the time of day the saliva sample was collected. Harsh parenting was measured using five items from the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment inventory. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed that increases in maternal cortisol reactivity at 15 months predicted subsequent increases in harsh parenting at 24 months. Similarly, increases in harsh parenting at 15 months predicted increases in maternal cortisol reactivity at 24 months. Findings indicate that increased cortisol reactivity to children's distress in early toddlerhood may indicate a risk for harsh parenting in late toddlerhood and that increases in harsh parenting can also negatively impact mothers' stress physiology over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic fluctuations in maternal cardiac vagal tone moderate moment-to-moment associations between children's negative behavior and maternal emotional support.

Our primary objective was to examine the extent to which moment-to-moment associations between preschool-aged children's behavior and maternal emotional support differed for mothers showing different levels of parasympathetic engagement. We used behavioral observations of maternal and child behavior and maternal changes in cardiac vagal tone assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia in 15-s intervals during a 5-min challenging puzzle task (N = 121 dyads; 65 girls, Mage = 4.42 years). Results from multilevel models showed that increases in children's defeat (e.g., frustration, task withdrawal) coupled with maternal vagal augmentation (an index of social engagement) in a given 15-s interval predicted increases in maternal support in the next interval, whereas increases in children's defeat coupled with maternal vagal withdrawal (an index of physiological arousal) in a given 15-s interval did not predict increases in maternal support. Findings suggest that vagal augmentation in mothers may operate together with fluctuations in children's negative behaviors to predict supportive parenting in real time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The affective and conversational benefits of a walk in nature among mother-daughter dyads.

The emotional benefits of nature among children and adults are well documented. However, little is known regarding how nature exposure influences a parent and child walking together (Journal of Planning Literature, 2015, 30, 433). We examine how both environmental setting and social context influence affect and conversational content among mother-daughter dyads. Twenty-eight mother-daughter (aged 10-12) dyads participated in a within-subjects experimental design that included two counterbalanced conditions-a 20 minute walk outdoors and a 20 minute walk indoors. Self-reported positive affect and negative affect were collected before and after each condition, and audio-recorded observations were utilized to code expressed positivity, negativity, and conversational content during each condition. Results showed that 1) daughters self-reported positive affect increased after the outdoor walk and mothers and daughters reported decreased negative affect after both conditions, 2) mothers and daughters expressed less negativity during the nature walk and were more likely to influence each other's negative affect indoors, and 3) mothers and daughters talked more about the surrounding environment during the indoor walk and engaged in more neutral conversations during the outdoor walk. Findings from the study demonstrate the benefits of mother-daughter dyads walking together outdoors and highlight the importance of spending time outside as a way to promote positive family interactions.

Parental Structuring in Response to Toddler Negative Emotion Predicts Children's Later Use of Distraction as a Self-Regulation Strategy for Waiting.

Structuring is a parental response to young children's behavior that may foster children's attempts to use cognitive skills to engage in self-regulation. Using a rural, economically strained sample, parental structuring in response to 127 eighteen-month-olds' negative emotion was observed during a home visit. Children's distraction, a useful cognitive strategy when waiting for a reward, was assessed during a laboratory wait task at 18, 24, 36, and 48 months. More frequent parental structuring at child age 18 months predicted more developmental growth in children's use of distraction between 18 and 48 months, in contrast with parental directives. Consistent with Kopp's (1989) framework, parental structuring may capitalize on children's cognitive development to play a unique role in fostering children's self-regulation of negative emotion.

Concordance of mother-child respiratory sinus arrythmia is continually moderated by dynamic changes in emotional content of film stimuli.

Evidence suggests that concordance between parent and child physiological states is an important marker of interpersonal interaction. However, studies have focused on individual differences in concordance, and we have limited understanding of how physiological concordance may vary dynamically based on the situational context. We examined whether mother-child physiological concordance was moderated by dynamic changes in emotional content of a film clip they viewed together. Second-by-second estimates of respiratory sinus arrythmia were obtained from mothers and children (N = 158, Mchild age = 45.16 months) as they viewed a chase scene from a children's film. In addition, the film clip's negative emotional content was rated second-by-second. Results showed that mother-child dyads displayed positive physiological concordance only in seconds when there was an increase in the clip's negative emotional content. Thus, dynamic changes in mother-child physiological concordance may indicate dyadic responses to challenge.

Direct and indirect pathways from maternal and paternal empathy to young children's socioemotional functioning.

In the present article, we investigated the contributions of maternal and paternal empathy to child socioemotional competence both directly and indirectly through parents' emotion socialization practices using data from two longitudinal studies: Study 1 (n = 122, 61 girls, M age = 33 months) and Study 2 (n = 60, 31 girls; M age = 27 months). Results indicated that parental empathy had an indirect effect on children's positive peer relations (Study 1 and Study 2) via more supportive reactions to children's negative emotions. No indirect effects of parental empathy emerged in the models examining parents' nonsupportive reactions to children's emotions, although parental empathy showed a direct association with greater child empathy (Study 2). Moreover, paths composing indirect and direct effects did not significantly differ as a function of parent gender. The findings suggest that mothers' and fathers' dispositional empathy contribute in similar ways to young children's socioemotional competence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal emotion socialization in early childhood predicts adolescents' amygdala-vmPFC functional connectivity to emotion faces.

Guided by Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad's (1998) conceptual framework, we examined multiple components of maternal emotion socialization (i.e., reactions to children's negative emotion, emotion talk, emotional expressiveness) at 33 months of age as predictors of adolescents' amygdala-vmPFC connectivity and amygdala activation when labeling and passively observing angry and happy faces. For angry faces, more positive maternal emotion socialization behaviors predicted (a) less positive amygdala-vmPFC connectivity, which may reflect more mature vmPFC downregulation of the amygdala activation underlying implicit emotion regulation, and (b) more amygdala activation, which may reflect higher sensitivity to others' emotional cues. Associations between negative emotion socialization behaviors and neural responses to angry faces were nonsignificant, and findings for the models predicting neural responses to happy faces showed a less consistent pattern. By expanding Eisenberg et al.'s (1998) framework to consider neural processing of negative emotions, the current findings point toward the potential long-term implications of positive emotion socialization experiences during early childhood for optimal functioning of the amygdala-vmPFC circuitry during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamics of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent autonomy and control during a conflict discussion task.

Adolescence is characterized by increases in autonomy, yet we have limited knowledge about how parents and adolescents may navigate this transition in real time. We assessed dynamic bidirectional associations between parental behavior-specifically, autonomy support and control-and adolescent autonomy in both mother-adolescent and father-adolescent dyads during a 10-min conflict discussion task (N = 86, 32 girls). Observers rated parental autonomy support, parental control, and adolescent autonomy on 4-point scales in 30-s epochs. Residual dynamic structural equation (RDSEM) models revealed that increases in paternal autonomy support in a given 30-s epoch predicted increases in adolescent autonomy in the next epoch, after controlling for stability in father and adolescent behavior from one epoch to the next. Further, increases in adolescent autonomy in a given 30-s epoch predicted increases in maternal control in the next epoch. Findings highlight the importance of investigating bidirectional associations in parent-adolescent interactions as well as considering the divergent roles that mothers and fathers may play in the socialization of adolescent autonomy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic bidirectional associations in negative behavior: Mother-toddler interaction during a snack delay.

Theoretical models posit real-time bidirectional processes between parents and children as integral to child development, yet few studies have examined such processes. In this study, cross-lagged autoregressive latent growth models were used to assess the dynamic organization of mother and toddler behavior across a snack-delay task. Maternal support and nonsupport and toddler aversive behaviors were rated in 15-s intervals (N = 127 dyads; mean toddler age = 32.7 months). As hypothesized, within-mother increases in nonsupport predicted within-child increases in aversive behavior in the subsequent interval. Likewise, within-child increases in aversive behavior predicted within-mother increases in nonsupport. Maternal support was unassociated with child aversive behavior. Findings are consistent with a dynamic model of mother-toddler influences on negative behaviors during a regulatory challenge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Mothers' dispositional distress reactivity as a predictor of maternal support following momentary fluctuations in children's aversive behavior.

Given that maternal support promotes healthy social and emotional development in early childhood, it is important to understand the predictors of such support, especially during emotional challenges. In this study, mothers' dispositional distress reactivity (i.e., the tendency toward experiencing distress in response to children's negative emotions and behavior) was assessed as a predictor of maternal support in a given moment when children showed within-person fluctuations in aversive behavior (i.e., negative affect and disruptive behaviors) in concurrent and prior moments. Data were collected when children were 33 months of age. Mothers (N = 128) reported on their distress reactivity, and maternal support and child aversive behavior were coded in 15-s intervals during a 5-min snack-delay task. As hypothesized, multilevel models revealed that mothers' dispositional distress reactivity predicted decreases in maternal support when children showed within-person increases in aversive behavior in the prior 15-s interval but not in the concurrent interval. Findings highlight the importance of investigating the contributions of maternal dispositional tendencies to moment-to-moment changes in parenting behavior during moderate, everyday challenges with young children. (PsycINFO Database Record

Fostering parents' emotion regulation through a sibling-focused experimental intervention.

In this study, we assessed whether an intervention designed to improve children's sibling relationships, the More Fun with Sisters and Brothers program (MFWSB), may also help parents manage their emotions more effectively. Families with at least 2 children between the ages of 4 and 8 years were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 50) or wait-list control (n = 34) group. Parents completed pre- and posttest questionnaires on sibling warmth and agonism, their emotion regulation during sibling conflict, and their global emotion regulation styles. Program participation had a direct effect on 3 of the 4 emotion regulation outcomes for mothers. Mothers in the intervention versus control group reported lower levels of dysregulation and suppression and higher levels of reappraisal at posttest, controlling for pretest regulation scores. Additionally, path models examining posttest responses showed that participation in MFWSB led to lower levels of maternal and paternal negative reactivity in the sibling context via lower levels of sibling agonism, controlling for pretest levels of negative reactivity. Alternate path models, with parents' emotion regulation as mechanisms linking MFWSB and sibling relationship quality, were tested but not supported. Results highlight the value of a sibling-focused intervention for promoting parents' abilities to regulate their emotions.